chrestomathy. Before completing his theological course, he declined several offers inviting him to public situations; for he was exceedingly desirous of availing himself of the advantages which he then enjoyed. At the request of the Professors he often rendered valuable assistance by giving instruction to such students as needed special help and attention in some particular branches of study. His course of three years at Newton he finished in August, 1837; and, at the Anniversary, he delivered an address on one of his favorite subjects, Religious Liberty.

After leaving Newton, he visited the Baptist church in Claremont, N. H., in accordance with an often repeated request on the part of the church. He preached a short time, and was invited to become their pastor. But he had a desire to look over the field, before settling any where, and declined the invitation. He travelled West and South, to some extent, and finally concluded to settle for a short time in Baltimore, Md., thinking that the climate would be beneficial to his health, and especially to that of his wife, who, it was thought, could not bear a more northern climate. He returned to Boston, and was ordained in the Baldwin Place Baptist church, November 26, 1837. We notice in the minutes of the council the names of the Rev. Messrs. John Peak, William Collier, Daniel Sharp, Henry J. Ripley, George B. Ide, Rollin H. Neale, T. C. Tingley, Barnas Sears, and Baron Stow, who were present. He immediately proceeded to Baltimore; and, in connection with preaching the Gospel in the city and vicinity on the Sabbath, he opened a classical and English school, which is to the present time, in a flourishing condition. Having labored there more than two years, and Mrs. Hutchinson having almost entirely recovered her health, he left that city for New-England. He soon received a call to become pastor of the Baptist church in Framingham, Mass., which he accepted, and was installed, August 21, 1840. His labors there were blest. Though the church had been in a very low state for a long time, the members were revived; and souls were converted. He did not, however, remain long in that interesting field.

In February, 1841, he received an invitation to take charge of the Thomaston Theological Institution in the State of Maine. Trusting, from the favorable representations, that the Institution was permanently established, he accepted the appointment and entered upon its duties in March following. But he soon found that the Institution was seriously embarrassed for want of funds. Our brethren in the State were not united. Some thought that all of their benefactions should be bestowed upon Waterville College; and others. that both Institutions ought to be sustained. The debts which had been incurred at Thomaston must

be paid; and the buildings and library had to be sacrificed. The Trustees were obliged to give up an Institution which they had cherished for a number of years, and to which many excellent young men had resorted for instruction. To show how Mr. Hutchinson's labors were regarded, we have obtained permission to insert the following expression drawn up and signed voluntarily by the students:-"Respected Instruc tor,-We tender you our sincere thanks for the faithful instructions we have received from you, since you have had charge of this Institution. We feel an entire satisfaction in your method of teaching, and regret that we can no longer be favored with your valuable services. You and your companion have endeared yourselves to us by many acts of kindness. May our attachment be mutual and lasting. And may the God of heaven crown you with his loving kindness."

During his residence of nearly four years at Thomaston, he often preached for the church in the immediate vicinity of the Institution; and in a revival in that place, he baptized several, and assisted materially in the religious meetings. Removing now to New York, he at first engaged in his much loved employment, as a teacher, in Brooklyn, where he established a Classical and English school; and afterwards, committing this to other hands, he became EDITOR of the BAPTIST MEMORIAL.

REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

As Whitefield was once preaching to a vast multitude on the banks of one of the noble rivers of Virginia, he spoke of the strength of depravity, and the insufficiency of the means of grace to convert the sinner without the influence of the Holy Spirit. "Sinners," said he, "think not that I expect to convert a single soul of you by any thing that 1 can say, without the assistance of Him that is mighty to save.' Go and stand by that river, as it moves on its strong and deep current to the ocean, and bid it stop, and see if it will obey you. Just as soon should I expect to stop that river by a word, as, by my preaching, to stop that current of sin that is carrying you to perdition. Father in heaven, see! they are hurried on towards hell; save them or they per ish!' The impression which this address produced upon his hearers was so strong, that they were ready to respond with trembling, "Save, Lord, or we perish."

THE FAMILY.

BY REV. W. LAMSON.

THE season of the year has returned for the observance of that good New-England appointment, a day of thanksgiving. All the associations of this day cluster around the family. A beautiful custom has long prevailed in many of our communities of making this a day of family gatherings. The children who have long since left the home of their childhood, and have been widely scattered, gather as men and women under the same roof which sheltered them in infancy, and around the same table and hearth at which they daily met in their early years. The moral and social influence of such gatherings can hardly fail to be a blessing. The affection of brothers and sisters which so often grows cold in the strife of life is rekindled, and parents and children live over again for a single day the scenes of years long past. And if death has entered the circle, and one of the number during the year has been called away, the vacant place is noticed and all hearts are tenderly, and may be, profitably affected. The Thanksgiving is chastened with sadness, and the thoughts of all are carried forward to the spirit world, and if piety has shed over them its hallowed influence they are led to think. and to speak of that other meeting in their Father's house on high, and to pray that not one of the family may then be absent. Yes! a New England Thanksgiving is intimately associated with the family. We love it because it carries us back to the days of childhood-we love it because it brings tenderly before us the loved and departed; we love it because it binds more closely together those who ever had but one home, and all whose interests were one. The nature of this season has suggested to us, the commencement of a series of short articles on the family, and if by anything we may write we shall carry into the many families which our Memorial visits, a higher appreciation of the family, and excite a stronger desire to make it what it was designed to be, we shall be richly compensated.

The theme is an important one. It is difficult to overestimate it. Ia there any thing upon which the stability, and the prosperity of all our national interests so directly depend, as on the character of the families of the nation? The family lies at the foundation of all that is valuable in the institutions of the land. Let that be corrupted, and no wisdom in our legislators, no power in our army, can save us from ruin. In the domestic circles of the land influences are daily operating which, in a few

years, will be developed in the piety or the infidelity, the stability, or the lawlessness of the men who will then be guiding the destinies of this rast republic Somewhere in the land, perhaps in one of its humblest dwellings, at this hour, the child is receiving his earliest training, who is hereafter to be the chief magistrate of this land. In other domestic circles are those who are in coming years to fill our halls of legislation, to occupy the bench in our highest courts, to be the teachers in the schools and colleges of a coming age, and above all to fill the pulpits of the land, and to go as missionaries to the heathen. Who can estimate the importance of the influences which are giving the first and most abiding impressions to these minds?

The family in its best state is never found beyond the limits of christianity. It is indeed the product of christianity. I was struck with the remark of a learned friend sometime since, that in the classic languages of Greece and Rome, languages so rich and elegant, there is no word corresponding fully to our word home. There were splendid dwellings in both Greece and Rome, and there were public buildings that have never been equalled, and the ruins of which are still visited and admired; but there were no homes there in the true sense. They had no word to express the idea. And we owe it to christianity that we have the idea, and the reality. The family and home belong to christianity.

But this institution, displaying in so striking a manner the wisdom and goodness of God, may be perverted to be the fruitful source of misery. These little communities of individuals, each distinct in itself, having its own separate interests, its affections, its joys and its sorrows, are so many schools where individuals may be trained up for all that is exalted and worthy here, and hereafter-or they may be so perverted that each one shall be the school of all that is debasing here, and all that is fearful hereafter. Let us then propose and consider the question-What is essential to render the family productive of the highest happiness and good?

The first requisite is the right kind of government. Every community, from the least to the greatest, must have some kind of government. The authority must be lodged somewhere. Now, in the family, this authority must be placed in one individual or it must depend on the wil! of the majority. But nature and revelation agree in telling us where the authority should be. They both, notwithstanding all that the radi ealism of the day teaches. make it the duty of the husband and the father to rule, and of the other members to obey. In all matters, except those which would involve a violation of conscience, it his duty and his privilege to be the head of the domestic circle. The scriptural injunction is-wives obey your husbands, and children your parents.

But what shall be the character of this government? It may be that of brute force--the authority of a tyrant-making home or what should be home, the most wretched place on earth. Of all the tyrants that the world ever saw, perhaps, none is worse than the domestic tyrant. His subjects, few in number, and daily under his eye, and dependent for the supply of so many of their wants immediately on him, he has it in his power to exercise his cruelty on them in ways that will wound most keenly and constantly.

But there is another kind of domestic government, which is now seldom seen, and the absence of which many are regretting. It is the government of the puritan. There is nothing in which we have departed farther from the example of our worthy puritan ancestors, than in their manner of family discipline. There was an iron rule in their houses. The puritan, though not the tyrant, was the lord in his own house. A stern severity, and the reserve of lofty dignity, marked his habitual demeanor in the family. The first lesson was submission, and it was carried into all the duties of every day life. The child was placed and kept at a distance from the father, and was perpetually made to feel that distance. The feelings with which he was inspired toward the parent were those of awe, and reverence but slightly mingled with the more tender emotions. Now as we have said, there are many who are professedly regretting the absence of this kind of domestic discipline. They speak of the days of our puritan fathers as the golden period in family government. But I have no thought that the world ever will return to the customs of the puritans in this matter-nor is it desirable that they should. Theirs was an age of stern severity in all things-the like of which will never again be witnessed in a Christian land. The education of the family was one adapted to the times. There was little that was genial and kindly in the circumstances of life then. Want and peril and suffering were to be grappled with, and the race that were coming forward needed a peculiar education for those scenes which were before them and God wisely provided for the then rising generation just that education that was needed. But it is not now needed. It would not be best to return to it, if we could. ·

But while we have wisely departed from much of the forbidding sternness of the puritan-there is danger that we run to the other extreme of unrestrained indulgence. And this may be regarded as the tendency of the times in family government. We are in danger of adopting in the family what many are pleading for in the States-the no-government theory. But there should be government-the government of firm but affectionate authority-discipline, but discipline tempered and com